Abstract
Pruritus can be defined as an unpleasant cutaneous sensation that leads to the need to scratch. Pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”
Experiences that resemble pain or itch but are not unpleasant, e.g., pricking or tickling, should not be called pain or itch. Tickle is a sensation with two components: a light pre-noxious sensation (knismesis) and laughter-associated sensation (gargalesis).2
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Misery, L. (2010). Pruritus, Pain and Other Abnormal Skin Sensations. In: Misery, L., Ständer, S. (eds) Pruritus. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-322-8_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-322-8_10
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